Nondeliberative Practice from the Field: Illustrations from a Group Worker

ABSTRACT

This article reviews features of Lang’s nondeliberative practice and provides illustrations from the field of group work that demonstrate these concepts. Nondeliberative practice enables problem solving in ways other than verbal and cognitive: the experience of a group of women who went on their first Outward Bound trip into the wilderness; adolescents who, through acting as their favorite living creature, made connections in nonverbal ways. The “doing” of the activity—be it symbolic, pictorial, performance, game, or other actional mode— is experienced affectively and analogically, and is transferable to other aspects of life.     

Social Work Students' Perceived Knowledge of and Preparation for Group-Work Practice

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to identify factors relevant to social work students' perceived knowledge of and preparation for group-work practice. In addition, the experiences of students in the classroom and in the field are discussed in relationship to these variables. Although classroom and field experiences were significant, exposure to group in the field placement was a much stronger predictor of group-work knowledge. Students reported feeling most knowledgeable about the concepts of mutual aid, diversity, group culture, and group phases. Reported gaps in learning were related to research and legal issues associated with group work.     

Embracing Sculptural Ceramics: A Lived Experience of Touch in Art

ABSTRACT

Sculptural ceramic objects created by and for the body were made within the context of art-based research, in which theoretical explorations and studio practice were integrally interwoven. Studio explorations developed from theoretical knowledge gained from human physiology, and from the development of an understanding of the “lived experience” as expressed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, through the experiences of the artist in making, and comments from visitors at exhibitions. The artworks challenge the visual hegemony of the art gallery by more fully engaging the body's sense of touch through the embrace. The sculptures, which were made by “casting hugs,” instinctively invite interaction, with soft curves that echo the human body, textures to visually entice individuals to touch, and a pleasurable weight that slows down responses. In public exhibition the artworks are enthusiastically embraced and held, broadening and articulating a tactile aesthetic for sculpture, and shifting focus from the sculptural objects themselves to one's physical and emotional experience of those objects.     

“Her Anger Frightens Me!” Using Group-Work Practice Principles and Feature Films in Teaching Clinical Practice in Mental Health

ABSTRACT

Combining group-work practice principles and the arts (feature films) can contribute to more effective teaching and enhance student clinical practice competency. By treating teaching as a form of group work and introducing a feature film into the classroom group, an instructor can reduce student-learning anxieties, teach core clinical concepts and skills, and enhance the classroom’s socioemotional climate. Vignettes demonstrate how this approach to teaching enriched students’ learning in an introductory clinical social work class on adult mental health.     

Passing the Baton: Principles and Implications for Transferring the Leadership of a Group

ABSTRACT

Poor practice in the transferring of groups abounds. This paper examines the process of transferring a group from one worker to another. Five concepts are discussed: giving early notice of the transfer; having one-on-one discussions between the arriving and departing workers; effecting the actual transfer; evaluating the group and establishing a new purpose and goals; and working through members' feelings and reactions to the transfer.     

The Flesh and the World: Intercorporeal Body-selves,Ageing and Dancing

ABSTRACT

In this paper I address the role that embodiment, embodied consciousness and what can be termed “extradiscursive” experiences such as body memory and ekstasis as a form of ecstatic experience assume in understanding the body-self of mature dancers. I argue that the body-self of the dancer becomes increasingly intersubjective in maturity through her/his bodily practice, and that this can be understood in terms of the notions of intercorporeity, and of the “flesh” derived from the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty. I argue that ways of manifestation of intercorporeity in bodily experience are discursively elusive, drawing on two forms of bodily experience—body memory and ekstasis—and examining experiences narrated by mature dancers who were interviewed in my Ph. D. study on ageing, gender and dancers' bodies. I contend that the experience of ekstasis is the “glue” of a corporeal subjectivity that transforms itself through momentary identification with the world, that calls on the invisible as well as the visible. Body memory also challenges Western dualist conceptions of consciousness and bodily experience, and is more easily aligned with Eastern understandings of consciousness as embodied. Finally, I suggest that the concept of body memory is useful for imbuing the body-subject with a cohesion and authenticity through the body's capacity for nonconscious remembrance of movement through a proprioceptively stored “body history,” which enables the constitution of a coherent body-self in older age.     

The group worker becoming: moving from anxiety to spontaneity with the guys

ABSTRACT

This narrative follows an ongoing open-form process group in an abstinence-based sober-living house as residents deal with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, interpersonal difficulties, and maintenance of recovery from Substance Use Disorder. The story illustrates the role development, role conflict, and role demand that group social workers experience and highlights a new social worker’s transition from professional anxiety and rigidity to spontaneity, nuance, and confidence in his practice.     

The Meaning of Camp and Social Group Work Principles

SUMMARY

The paper examines the experience of campers at a summer residential camp in relation to principles of group work practice that are incorporated into the camp program. Through the use of examples and stories from campers, six different principles are discussed in relation to their meaning to campers. All of the practice principles discussed are applicable to other recreational, residential, and educational settings.     

The Work Experiences of Social Workers: Factors Impacting Compassion Satisfaction and Workplace Stress

Abstract

In 2015, over 6,000 licensed social workers in 13?US states responded to an online survey regarding perceptions and feelings about their work, as well as numerous personal and practice issues. Specifically, this study examined participants’ levels of compassion satisfaction and workplace stress, and then determined through multivariate analyses what demographic factors, behavioral and physical health problems, practice issues, fields of practice, and workplace environment issues impacted these two variables.

The findings indicate that participants demonstrated high levels of compassion satisfaction, with a wide range of workplace stress levels. Workplace environment issues had the greatest impact on both variables, with social workers’ mental health problems, physical health status, and certain demographic factors such as race also influencing them. Over 82% of respondents expressed agreement that they were glad that they chose social work as a profession. The results appear to demonstrate that despite being a potentially stressful occupation, licensed social workers tend to experience significant emotional satisfaction from their work. On the other hand, the results also highlight the need for further research to determine how to enhance support for social workers in the workplace in order to not only reduce workplace stress, but also to increase compassion satisfaction.     

Type of Volunteer Experience and Health Among Older Adult Volunteers

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to ascertain if the type of volunteer experience was related to the physical health or psychological well-being of older adult volunteers. A central pattern emerged from the data: the type of, as well as the number of, hours donated to a volunteer activity were associated with psychological well-being. Implications for social workers involved with volunteer programs and services are discussed in terms of volunteer recruitment and retention, and the need to develop more significant volunteer roles, especially for low-income older adults.     

A Study of MSW and BSW Students' Involvement with Group Work in the Field Practicum

ABSTRACT

Over six hundred students from ten schools of social work participated in a study designed to determine the extent to which they were involved in group work in their field practicum and their attitudes towards this intervention. Results indicated that the majority of the students felt they understood group work, even though they had actually had relatively little academic preparation and limited experience with groups in their field placement. In addition, the findings suggest that actual experience with group work in the field placement may decrease students' desire to lead groups in their professional practice, unless this experience is accompanied by appropriate support and guidance.     

You Don't Always Have to Pick Up Your Mess Right Away: How Being Messy Can Be Really Neat!

SUMMARY

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate a first year student's field placement experience at a group home for mentally ill adolescent boys. Upon discovering she has to “un-learn” past “learned” group work skills, she eagerly anticipates future opportunities to utilize “re-learned” theory acquired from major method course readings and lectures. Once in the field, she confronts the difficulties that this presents. The following is an account of the fears and frustrations as well as the joys and rewards one student encountered while attempting to apply and practice group work methodology in the field.     

Affect,Heat and Tacos. A Speculative Account of Thermoception

Abstract

Current affective approaches in the experience of heat or thermoception focus on the capacity of control and regulation of temperature by means of consciously driven physical activity of the human body. With this paper, I suggest that thermoception is a complex process whose explanation requires considering events of production of heat that are not registered by conscious activity and that do not even appear in the strata of the organic body. In order to further expand the understanding of thermoception I turn to Whitehead’s philosophy to develop a speculative account of the experience of heat. I use his concept of prehension as well as his analysis of “division” to explain the relation between events of production of heat from three different scales of organization: molecular, organic, and cultural. I will explain how each event of production of heat modify the affective capacity of feeling heat as well as the way each event of heat inherits its quota of subjectivity all the way up to the production of human experience and the rise of anxiety as an emotion made of heat. To make my case, I will provide a division analysis of prehension in the experience of heat when eating tacos in the streets of Mexico City.     

A Model for Group Work Practice with Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Victims of Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT

The Orthodox Jewish community has only recently acknowledged that religious practice and commitment does not make one immune to suffering from domestic violence. Effective therapeutic techniques for working with battered Orthodox women have only recently begun to emerge.

This article focuses on the use of group work as an effective therapeutic modality for working with abused Orthodox Jewish women. This research highlights the insight, knowledge, and experience of practitioners who facilitate domestic violence groups, focusing on proficiencies and ethnic-sensitive practice strategies that are perceived to lead to successful outcomes.

The application of ethnic-sensitive strategies is discussed to illustrate viable therapeutic considerations for working with this population. Implications and issues for educators and practitioners will be addressed.     

Six-Month Follow-Up Changes for TANF-Eligible Clients Involved in Kentucky's Targeted Assessment Program

ABSTRACT

Welfare reform has been successful in helping clients achieve self-sufficiency. However, some individuals experience problems associated with basic needs, physical health, mental health, substance abuse, and intimate partner violence (IPV) that can impede transitioning from welfare to work and/or interfere with parental responsibilities. The Targeted Assessment Program (TAP) was created more than a decade ago to identify and address these problems and help clients move off the welfare rolls in Kentucky. Self-reported interview data were used to examine changes and effect sizes between baseline assessment and 6-month follow-up from a sample (n = 322) of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families-eligible clients participating in Kentucky's TAP. Using McNemar's test for correlated proportions, paired-sample t-tests, and measures of effect size, significant changes with varied effect sizes were found for selected basic needs, as well as physical health, mental health, substance use, and IPV barriers. Findings suggest that social service practitioners could incorporate strengths-based case management and motivational interviewing into their practice. Further research is suggested utilizing longitudinal and controlled studies on evidence-based practice that address pretreatment and assessment strategies involving case management and motivational interviewing.     

The Use of a Mutual Aid Group with Home Attendants

SUMMARY

This article reflects the experience of six home attendants whose clients were individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer's and other related dementias. It examines how they used a mutual aid group to discuss the stresses, professional and personal problems that resulted from their work.     

Complexity Science: Understanding Research Processes and Improving Research Practice

ABSTRACT

Reflecting on experiences of coresearching with young people aged 13 to 15 in evaluating a government-funded initiative within their own communities, the author explores both some of the consequences of this endeavor and learnings from reflections on research processes therein. Reflections upon lessons learned are analyzed through applying some key concepts from complexity science to the research. It is argued that complexity science assists in reflection and in reaching more in-depth understandings of research processes. The author outlines how these concepts could be applied in research more generally and concludes that learnings from this experience are relevant to researchers everywhere.     

Integrating Process Interventions into a School-Based Curriculum Group

ABSTRACT

Manualized approaches are widely used in work with aggressive, impulsive, and oppositional behaviors to improve their peer relations, school behavior, and interactions with adults, including their teachers. When group-work principles and interventions are not applied to the live spontaneous group situations that arise, however, workers miss opportunities to further help members understand, incorporate, and practice the very behaviors being offered in the curriculum. This article describes a curriculum-based group experience and the successes and limitations of the work that was done and identifies areas in which the integration of more traditional group process interventions could have increased the effectiveness of the cognitive-behavioral curriculum-oriented approach.     

Sneezing as a Form of Transaction between Active Body and Space

ABSTRACT

This article proposes the idea of sneezing as a manifestation of how an active body responds to its surrounding space. Sneezing is a natural body reflex against particular external stimuli. As a reflex action, sneezing is an instinctive transaction between an active body and space that occurs in a very natural way. Sneezing has the potential to become one way in which the human body serves as an instrument of spatial experience. The occurrence of sneezing in certain spaces serves as a natural indicator of the quality of the spatial environment. In particular the sneezing process demonstrates the latent capabilities of the human body to become a natural instrument for comprehending the spatial environment in which it exists. It can be regarded as a unique instrument for mapping spatial experience, and for differentiating between qualities of the spatial environment that are not merely visual. Through sneezing, the body's experiencing process in space is manifested as a transaction between the active body and its space.     

Mothers’ Experience of Post-Traumatic Growth in Pediatric Kidney Transplantation

ABSTRACT

Parenting a child with chronic kidney disease has a profound impact on the parental caregivers across social, emotional, and physical functioning. As the survival rates for children with chronic kidney disease increase, the demands on parents caring for these children intensify. The aim of this study was to understand the lived experience of being a mother of a child who has undergone kidney transplantation. Seven mothers caring for children with chronic kidney disease in Ontario, Canada participated in in-depth interviews that were analyzed according to the principles of hermeneutic phenomenology. The present study presents the findings concerning post-traumatic growth: personal strength, new possibilities, enhanced relationships, appreciation of life and spiritual change. Recognizing positive aspects of stressful situations and the potential for growth can impact the practice of social workers and other health-care professionals. Ultimately the assistance that is provided to parent caregivers can be improved with a better understanding of the whole experience.